Drinks advice

Aged Manchego and quince jelly with González Byass Del Duque Amontillado V.O.R.S. 30Y

On the board lie wedges of aged Manchego, cubes of homemade quince jelly and a handful of roasted almonds. Opposite stands an amontillado of an average thirty years, so concentrated that it can stand up to a hard sheep’s cheese.

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Manchego
Photo: snowpea&bokchoi, CC BY 2.0

From the shelf

The bottle

Del Duque comes from González Byass in Jerez de la Frontera and is an amontillado with the designation V.O.R.S., which stands for an average age of at least thirty years. The wine is one hundred percent Palomino Fino and matures in botas of American oak in the solera y criaderas system; the solera goes back to 1835 and was laid down by the Duke of Medinaceli. As an amontillado the wine began biologically under the velo de flor and then moved to oxidative ageing with air contact, which concentrated the wine further and further through evaporation through the wood. You can see that in the strength: the bottle stands at 21.5 percent alcohol, high within the 16 to 22 percent that the Consejo Regulador gives for this style, and with us comes in 37 centilitres.

González Byass Del Duque Amontillado V.O.R.S. 30Y

The combination

Why this works together

An aged Manchego is a pressed sheep's cheese with at least fifty percent fat in the dry matter, and that combination of fat, salt and crystalline hardness calls for a wine with weight. Del Duque has that weight: after thirty years with air contact it has concentrated to 21.5 percent and there is a power in it that a young wine cannot muster. Yet it is completely dry, and that is the point here. The sweetness comes from the quince jelly, not from the glass, and so the division stays clean: the jelly softens the salt of the cheese, while the wine, with its nut and walnut tones, works against the fat. The years under the flor and the years after also run parallel in the mouth with the cheese and the roasted almonds, so that the three extend one another. For amontillado, the Consejo Regulador names mature cheese, and González Byass itself names hard cheese and nuts.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 1 hour and 40 minutes, plus setting overnight
  • Type cheese course

What you need

  • 1 kg quinces (4 to 5), washed, quartered and cored
  • 105 ml lemon juice
  • 800 g fine granulated sugar
  • 1 litre cold water
  • 300 g aged Manchego, in wedges
  • 50 g roasted almonds

How to make it

  1. Put the quinces, the lemon juice and a litre of cold water in a large pan with a lid. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down low and let the fruit simmer for 45 to 50 minutes with the lid on, until very soft.
  2. Drain the quinces through a fine sieve.
  3. Blend the drained quinces in a blender to a fine purée.
  4. Put the purée and the sugar in a large pan and let it cook for 40 to 50 minutes over low to medium-high heat. Stir regularly so the mixture does not stick. The jelly is ready when it no longer flows back when stirred.
  5. Spread the mixture out in a tin lined with baking paper, 20 by 20 centimetres, and leave it to set for at least 24 hours.
  6. Cut the jelly into cubes of about 2.5 centimetres and place them on a board with the Manchego wedges and the almonds. Take the cheese out of the fridge half an hour before serving.

In the glass

Serving

Serve Del Duque between 12 and 14 degrees; for the very old V.O.S. and V.O.R.S. wines the Consejo Regulador recommends about 15 degrees, so there is some room here. Use a white wine glass or a catavinos of about 200 millilitres and fill it by a third; with a wine this concentrated, a small pour is enough. An opened V.O.R.S. keeps for about three months, stored closed and cool, so you can comfortably spread this bottle over several evenings.

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